Diving off Pasir Ris Park (Eastern Johor Straits)

To create a memorable 23rd birthday, I decided to try something new: dive off Pasir Ris beach, which can be dangerous!! First, it is located along the East of johor straits which has reputation for strong current. This means that we can be easily swept to a 'distant place'. Also, the condition of water there is unfavourable for a dive: poor visibility + dirty & smelly water..

But still, out of adventure spirit, I decided to go ahead with the dive. However, the experienced reeped over the dive was indescrible, and planning to do it again on 13 Oct 2007.

The following is an account of the dive.

Location: Pasir Ris Park
Date: 28/06/2007
Time in: 1635hrs
Time out: 1708hrs
Total bottom time: 33mins

Nature of Dive: Shore Dive
Estimated maximum distance from shore: 70-80m
Tide status: high tide slack
Current: Slight current
Temperature: 31oC
Visibility: 0.5m

Depth:
Average Depth: 3.0m
Max Depth: 4.3m

Dive discription:
The dive was done from the shore of Paris Ris at about 4.30pm when the tide was high and about to receed (yet to be confirmed). It was done with 3 persons: a dive instructor, a fellow diver and me. We took our bearing towards the special (yellow) becon from the shore. The water was extremely polluted with a stench which smells like waste discharge.

To begin the dive, we swam about 10m away from the shore before descending to a depth of 1.5m. The seabed was muddy with high sediment content resting on it, which is easily disturbed. Thereafter, we followed our bearing towards the beacon. As we proceed, we gradually decended into deeper depth. Due to the limited visibility, we stayed extremely close to each other. However, we still had a lost buddy situation which forced us to ascend. We were only less than 10m away from each other though. Upon regrouping, we proceeded on with the dive.

Thereafter, we encountered 2 underwater sandbar which was parallel to the shoreline. Thereafter, we managed to encounter the base of the beacon before ending the dive.

Despite the poor visibility, we managed to spot a few visible organism. We found many sea pen corals (soft corals) scattered spaced about 2-3 meters apart on the sea bed. Size of the corals range between about 15cm to 30cm. Apart from that, we spotted at least 2 species of seaweeds (identification unknown) found in small clusters. Most memorably, we saw a crocodile fish staying motionless on the sea bed within a small cluster of seaweed. The fish looked similar to that of a mud skipper, at the tail and fins. However, the head looked like that of a crocodile with rounded and flattened beak-like structure. We observed it for about 30sec while it remained motionless before we continue the dive.

Overall, this dive was an extremely unique not just because of its poor visibility. We were pleasantly surprised at our sightings, especially the crocodile fish and the large population of sea pen corals together with a few different seaweeds. Hence, the beach contain some degree of biodiversity, which requires an observant individual to notice it.